Today the Ryzen revolution is finally complete. AMD's
processors made their debut in 2017 and a lot of water has come under the
bridge since then. The industry has changed, Intel is still firmly in the lead
when it comes to market share but has lost the tech dominance, and the delay in
farewell to 14 nanometers is getting harder and harder to bridge. In the
desktop field we will have to wait, in the meantime the Tiger Lake 10 nanometer
processors for laptops are now in the pipeline.
Precisely in the notebook world, AMD took longer to become
competitive again, especially in the high-end. Until a few months ago, the
American company had focused on the medium segment, using the Zen 1
architecture for the CPUs dedicated to notebooks. The Ryzen 4000 series
processors, on the other hand, can count on the Zen 2 architecture, SaaS (Software as a Service) the same
architecture available in desktop processors such as the Ryzen 3900XT we
reviewed , which brings higher frequencies and a higher IPC. The result of this
leap generation can be seen in the ROG Zephyrus G14 , a small gaming laptop
capable of functioning as a real desktop replacement.
A lot of power in a small space
The Zephyrus G14 and Ryzen 4900HS processor have few rivals
when it comes to performance under stress and battery life. This CPU has
allowed ROG to maintain a compact size of 32.4 x 22.2 x 1.79 cm, and a low
weight if you think about the marketingmediaweb available power, of only 1.6 Kg.
The work done by AMD on this series of processors is
incredible but an applause must also be made to Asus which has managed on the
one hand to reduce the weight, thanks to a shell in aluminum and magnesium
alloy , on the other hand to implement an divinebeautytips internal dissipation system capable
of keeping at bay the heat.
The build quality of the body is high, there are no creaks,
while the colors available are white, more striking, and the black of the model
we tested. Once the lid is open, the hinge slightly raises the notebook,
putting it in a more comfortable position for writing, also creating a small
slit in the body, to facilitate the outflow of heat.
The keyboard has buttons that are well spaced and nanobiztech comfortable to reach with your fingers, with a very short stroke. At the top of
the keyboard there are four shortcuts, to manage the volume, deactivate the
Microphone and access Armory Crate, the notebook management software.
The power button integrates the fingerprint reader , while techcrunchblog the webcam is not present, an unusual choice that may not please those who use
the laptop even in areas other than gaming. Connections include two USB 3.1
Type A, two USB 3.2 Type C, headphone and microphone jacks, power and HDMI
output, no network socket unfortunately.
The Ryzen 4900HS processor offers so much power,globalmarketingbusiness which must
be kept at bay by the heat sink. In all there are two fans with self-cleaning
technology, each with 81 blades, and 5 heatpipes to carry the heat to the fans.
On the audio front we have four speakers, two in the upper
body for high frequencies and two in the lower one for medium and low
frequencies. The yield is discreet, we are not faced with anything
revolutionary, but it is difficult to install a better sound system in a body
of this size. There is also the Dolby Atmos standard, now ubiquitous in gaming
laptops.
One hardware to do it all
Asus has created a well-balanced spec laptop, which seeks
maximum power on the front from the CPU and greater balance in the GPU. The
Ryzen 9 4900 HS processor is the top of the range of AMD's lineup and is
equipped with 8 Core and 16 Threads, with a base clock of 3 GHz which rises to
a peak of 4.3 GHz. Inside it also integrates a Vega GPU with 512 Stream
Processor and frequencies up to 1750 MHz. Highest level specifications, only
possible thanks to the 7 nm manufacturing process. For our gaming benchmarks we
used the RTX 2060 Max-Q, the incredible thing is that already with the
integrated GPU it is possible to play, with certain limits, but we are faced
with performances superior to any other integrated seen on notebooks .
However, considering that the RTX 2060 Max-Q is available,
it is better to use this one, since its 1920 CUDA Core and 6 GB of RAM
guarantee significantly higher performance.
The test configuration then provides 1 TB of M.2 NVMe SSD
disk and 16 GB of RAM, with a clock of 3200 MHz, a real rarity in the notebook
field, where it is difficult to exceed 3000 MHz. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.
The screen is 14-inch IPS with a resolution of 2560x1440
pixels and a refresh rate of 60 Hz, certified by Pantone as regards
calibration. During the configurations phase, it is possible to opt for a Full
HD screen at 120 Hz, a solution that we find more suitable for the RTX 2060 in
the gaming field. This is a good quality screen, which does not stand out from
the crowd when it comes to maximum brightness but is still suitable for a
laptop of this type.
Performance
To understand the potential of the Ryzen 4900HS and the
Zephyrus G14 in general, we first tested them with CPU benchmarks, and then
also tested their behavior in the gaming field. The first test is the one with
CPUZ , which shows a score of 5253 in Multi Core and 517 in Single Core, values
similar to those found in the Ryzen 7 3700X , mounted on desktop PCs. With
Cinebench R20 the Multi Core test instead shows 4030 points, a result higher
than what we found in the Ryzen 7 2700X, former top of the desktop range from
AMD. Are we therefore facing the link between laptop and PC? Actually no, but
we are getting very close. This is because a laptop has to contend with thermal
throttling, a processor of this power cannot operate at the maximum operating
frequency for a long time, as the temperature increases, the frequencies must
necessarily drop.
We simulated a stressful situation for the CPU by subjecting
it to several cycles of Cinebench R20, finding that after the initial peak the
frequency settles around 3 GHz on all cores, limiting the temperature below 80
degrees. This is a truly excellent result and allows the 4900HS to withstand
the impact even in the most complex tasks, a result possible thanks to the 7 nm
production process and the excellent dissipation system .
The gaming benchmarks don't show very high values, but this
is due to the screen resolution, which is a bit to much for the RTX 2060 Max-Q.
Our advice is to aim directly for the Full HD models, which cost less and work
better with this GPU, as can also be seen from the benchmarks.
At this point one might think that, as in the past, a lot of
power corresponds to a low autonomy. It could not be more wrong, because the
Ryzen 9 4900HS is also able to adapt well to use on the move, easily exceeding
6 hours of use in "office" mode , then web browsing, mail and Office
management. Another small miracle of AMD's architecture and ROG engineering on
this notebook.
